Keeping the Dead in their Place People in ancient times were really superstitious, and very worried about the devil getting a foothold in their villages and towns. There was no consideration for people with mental illness being sick, it was usually thought they were possessed by the devil, or had become beasts such as vampires or werewolves. Witches were a big concern, and there wasn’t much proof, or any in some places which was required to punish someone for being a witch. Many times, the word of a neighbor who had a grudge against a party was enough. The fact most people were uneducated lent itself to these beliefs, and I have to wonder if those who were educated and in power used these uneducated people to carry out vendettas against their enemies. Newsweek ran a story about a Roman grave. It was the grave of a child considered to be about ten years old. It was not a normal Roman grave, because it was the type of grave used to keep the undead at bay. In the grave the mouth of the child had a very large rock shoved into it. This was usually done when the people didn’t want the person to come back to life. It was the equivalent of a wooden stake through the heart. Apparently, the people who buried this boy thought he was a vampire. The cemetery has bodies buried in it that date back to the mid fifth century A.D. There had been a first century Roman villa there originally. The body was positioned on its side and this might have been so the mouth wouldn’t open. The rock had been carved to put a point at the end, and was made of limestone. The child is being called the “Vampire of Lugnano” Here is what I think is a strange fact. Just about every state in the United States has a grave where a witch is said to be buried. There is a cemetery in Ohio northeast of Cleveland in a community known as Kirtland Hills. There is a memorial stone near the intersection of two roads. There is an urban legend which says if you turn your back to it and then face it again, the stone will move closer. Why is it said this memorial stone is so special? A family is buried there who came to the area in 1814, and had died out in 1820. Their name was the Levi Smiths. A legend states old Levi brought Mormonism to the area ahead of Joseph Smith, but the part we are most interested in for this article is the fact the people who lived in the area believed the wife of Levi, who was Ruth Smith, was a witch and had been driven out of Connecticut because of this. The dates for witch trials in Connecticut do not support the theory of her being driven out of Connecticut, because the last witch trial there was at the end of the 1690s. Archaeologists digging up graves have found some very strange stuff. A few years ago, the body of a teenage girl was found in Italy. She had been buried face down. This indicated she was rejected by society. It also indicated she was considered dangerous, perhaps in a supernatural way, such as a witch. Ironically the grave was discovered by the Vatican’s archaeological branch. An expert stated this type of burial was intended to humiliate the dead. It is said sometimes the people who were buried this way, that is face down, were not dead. This type of burial had to do with the belief the soul left through the mouth. If you were buried face down with your mouth against the dirt, it couldn’t escape. In the mid-1800s panic spread across the state of Georgia. The panic was caused by the fact it was believed a werewolf was stalking people who went into the woods. Silver crosses and medals were being melted into bullets by the people across the state. Eventually the so-called beast was killed and put into a grave which can still be seen today. The daughter of a rich family had been sent to school in Europe, and when she came back it was said she seemed strange. She had begun to slip out into the woods at night. When she returned the next day, she couldn’t remember having done this. Hair began to grow all over her body. Her teeth were said to have become pointed. Dead animals began to appear. One night the daughter was out in the woods, and she was shot. She didn’t die this time and was sent to Paris to a doctor who specialized in lycanthropy. When she was away the animal attacks stopped. When she returned, she was said to be cured, and lived to be 70 years old. She died and was buried and her gravestone reads, “Thy form alone is all, thank God, That to the grave is given; For ise know thy soul the better part, Is safe, yes safe, is heaven.” Archaeologists discovered a mass grave in the village of Wharram Percy. The grave dates back to somewhere between the 11th and 14th centuries. It is more like a pit. The village is in North Yorkshire and the bodies were mutilated and burned. It is believed this practice was carried out to stop the dead from rising and in this case to stop zombies. There was a strong belief in those days the dead could return to life and would kill humans. It was believed if you were evil some sort of life force would remain in your body and basically you would become a zombie, even if it wasn’t called that in those days. In those days there were texts written on how to deal with the deaths of evil people to make sure they didn’t come back to life. Some of the things which were recommended were decapitation, dismembering and burning. It is believed at least ten people had been put into the pit. Knife marks appeared on some of the bones, suggesting dismembering along with burn marks. Experts have said the evidence suggests this is exactly what happened to these bodies to prevent them from rising. While some people might still believe in the paranormal, practices to keep the dead in their place seem to have stopped.
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